Today, I had planned to cook for everyone in the house. I was cooking my famous gnocchi dish with an entree of fresh homemade bruschetta (because the tomatoes here are so good!), and as a dessert, my famous apples poached in a sweet red wine sauce over ice cream. I had to go with Maritza to the grocery strore in order to buy all of the ingredients. The grocery store over her is called "Mega". We had to take a bus there.

Upon our arrivel, it was unclear who was paying for the groceries. I had asked Maritza if she had any money. I had understood yes, but I was going to realize that this was not the case...

The grocery store did not have everything I needed. First of all, the only tomato sauce they had was in 160 ml pouches (nothing bigger). Also, they did not have any Ricotta. Therefore, I had to make potato gnocchi, which is easy over here since they have 300 different kinds of potatoes in Cuzco alone...

When we got to the cash, I did not have enough money, and neither did Maritza. So Maritza had to call Patricia, the woman that prepares our meals everyday. Patricia is one of the nicest people I know. She is a hugger and is very caring. I always flirt with her (even though she is a happily divorced young-looking grandmother) because her food is so good, and the only way to my heart is through good food. Anyways, back to the story...Partricia finally arrived (with her extremely cute granddaughter) after we waited at the cash register for 10 minutes. She payed half and I payed the other half. Patricia had promised to come and help at 5pm. She had also asked me if she could bring 3 other people, I obviously agreed! we were therefore going to be 9 people at supper time since Alex, Barbara, Jeremy and Spencer were all gone.

When we got home, I decided not to start supper until 4pm. I was going with Hassan, Sabine, and Lindsey to Saksaywaman again, but this time, to explore the national park as well as some Inca ruins. I was meeting everyone at 1 o'clock at Maximo Nivel and from there, we were going to take a taxi all the way up the mountain. Saksaywaman is one of the biggest national parks in Peru.

Upon arriving there, in order to enter the park, we had to buy a boleto touristico for 70 Soles. What this offered was the chance to visit many other touristic sites within Cusco for free. According to my guidebook, it was a must.

It was a beautiful park and I took many pictures (which I will put up soon). We had the chance to have a guide for 30 Soles, but we decided not to. After walking through the park and sereing some of ther ruins, I kind of regretted not getting a tour guide, because at times, I did not know what I was looking at or the significance...

Me and Lindsey had to be back for 4 o'clock. I had to start supper. As soon as I got back home, no one was home exept for Tyler that was still feeling sick from the other day. I started the bruschetta til around 5. I knew that it was going to be a big task and I desperately needed help. 6'oclock came around and Patricia still wasn't here, but Kevin and Caitlin arrived and I immediately asked for their help. Maritza was gone for the day because it was her day off. 7'oclock came and still no Patricia. By then, I knew we were not going to eat before 9 , because the gnocchi wasn't even started. Finally, Patricia came at about 7:30 with her three guests: Patrick and Jake, from England, and Clem from Australia. We rushed to finish everything (with the help from Clem, Patricia, Kevin, and Caitlin) and we were finally having dinner at 9pm. It was good (obviously not as good as my Nonna's), but good enough for everyone to really enjoy it.

Everyone ended up leaving at 11pm, and I was exausted (from walking all day and then cooking all night). I went to bed, and as soon as I put my head on my pillow, I was out cold...